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“I think my letter is very positive, and I hold out a positive path forward,” Vitter countered.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who worked with Republicans earlier this week, and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) sought to ease the anger in the hearing room.

“It seems to me that we really ought to be all smiles today. … A path forward has been agreed to, to move this nomination to the next step, and I think we really ought to be celebrating that rather than expressing any sort of negative feelings,” Wicker said.

“I want to concur with Sen. Wicker — this is a glass half-full moment,” Carper said. “And I think we would have liked to have this glass even fuller, and even sooner. But we have a path forward.”

Boxer wasn’t having it.

“I just can’t celebrate a partisan vote. I just can’t,” Boxer said, and she suggested that she would treat the committee to lunch if they could craft a bipartisan agreement.

Later, the chairwoman suggested the tension stemmed from ideological differences over the environment playing out along party lines — hardly a new wrinkle in Congress.

“Look, I’ve been around here a long time — I’m not shocked,” Boxer said after the hearing. “I’ve often said Sen. Vitter and I, when it comes to the infrastructure, we make great partners, as Sen. Inhofe and I were. When it comes to clean air, clean water, safe drinking water, Superfund … I believe that the Republicans take the side of the polluters. I’ve said this all along.”

And that had put McCarthy in the cross hairs, she said.

“What does surprise me is that you take a woman like Gina McCarthy, who is clearly so bipartisan in her approach — worked for four Republican governors and one Democratic president — was unanimously approved by the very same people who now oppose her — and hold her up and keep her twisting in the wind,” Boxer said.